Do you know what preschoolers love almost as much as they love snacks? An “All About Me” theme! All About Me is the perfect theme to kick off a new school year, whether at home or in the classroom. Today, I’m going to share my favorite All About Me craft—Shape Self-Portraits!
This craft is from the All About Me theme in my preschool curriculum, Play into Kindergarten Readiness. In Play into Kindergarten Readiness, your little one explores seven themes, each spanning four weeks. The themes all include playful, daily crafts and activities for your 3-5 year old to enjoy. Through 20-minutes of play a day, you cover all core foundational skills and give your little one a rock-solid foundation!
Check out the other six themes and what to expect with the Everything Preschool Bundle right here: https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/everything-preschool
And if you’re learning about shapes with your little one, you’ll also want to grab these FREE Printable DIY Tangrams! The freebie includes a printable tangrams template, five ways to play and learn AND a sample of Play into Kindergarten Readiness. Grab yours here:
All About Me Craft for Preschoolers: Shape Self-Portraits
Now, if you’ve been here for a while, you might remember a certain Nancy Number Face. This craft idea is similar, except today, we are going to focus on self-portraits using shapes.
Materials
For this craft, you will need:
- paper
- crayons
- plates and cups of various sizes
- construction paper
- scissors
- glue
- mirror (optional)
- hole punches (optional)
Instructions
To prep, grab some paper and crayons and help your child trace plates and cups of various sizes onto a piece of paper. You can either cut out these circles or have your child create their self-portraits directly on the page.
Now let’s turn the circles into silly self-portraits! There are two ways that you can do this, depending on your child’s abilities:
- Cut and Glue Shapes: Cut out a bunch of squares, triangles, rectangles, etc., from construction paper. Your child can choose shapes and glue them onto their circle faces. Using a pincer grasp to pick up and glue down the little pieces of paper is wonderful fine motor practice!
- Draw Shapes: Your child can draw shapes to create their faces. Perhaps they’ll choose a triangle for the nose, maybe a rectangle for the mouth—anything goes!
Of course, not all of the circles need to be a self-portrait!
You could turn some of the circles into family members, friends, your pets, or flex those creative muscles by making your own unique characters. We ended up going on quite the adventure coming up with different animals and foods that we could make.
Minecraft Steve and his pig even made an appearance while fending off a zombie with his pickaxe!
Extend the Learning
There are lots of ways that you can help extend the learning with this self-portrait craft!
Build Vocabulary: As your child creates their faces, you can help build their vocabulary by chatting about the various shapes, colors, and sizes. For example, you might say: “You used triangles for the eyes! What shape will you use for the nose?” or “That face has green eyes, just like you!”
Encourage Attention to Detail: You might choose to provide a handheld mirror for your child to use while they create their art. As they look in the mirror, they may notice the color of their eyes or the placement and shape of their facial features. This is wonderful for building observational skills and getting your little one to pay attention to details.
Learn About Emotions: As your child looks in the mirror, they can try making different faces to notice how the shape of their mouth and eyebrows, for example, change with different expressions. What does a happy face look like? How about an angry face? What changes when you make those two expressions? Your child could make each circle on their page represent a different emotion.
I hope your little one enjoyed creating their circle self-portrait!
For more playful activities like this one, all planned for you day-by-day, be sure to check out Play into Kindergarten Readiness. Give your preschooler a rock-solid foundation through 20-minutes of play a day!
Get Play into Kindergarten Readiness right here:
https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/everything-preschool
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Thank you so much for reading, my friend,
xo
Sarah
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